Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly: Difference between revisions

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manual of style falls under guideline, not policy
 
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#REDIRECT [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Statements likely to become outdated]]
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==Preferred style: use precise language==
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Unless you are writing on pages that are regularly refactored, such as [[Current events]], you should avoid statements that will date quickly. Phrases to avoid include "recently", "in modern times", "now considered", "is soon to become", and "the sixties"; instead use phrases such as "as of October 2001" or "the 1960s." In many cases, such statements are also more precise.
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Imagine someone is reading your words in six months, five, ten, fifty years. Will they still make sense?
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Using precise language that will not sound dated if the article is never edited again is considered the best practice.
 
==Another option==
 
That said, it sometimes suits the article to include time-sensitive statements that will need to be updated in the future.
 
The [[As of]] mechanism helps us to include current and timely information with less risk that someone browsing the Wikipedia in 2009 will read an article about that new album that is due in spring of 2004...
 
A link to [[As of 2005]] will redirect to the 2005 page, acting the same as a [[2005]] link. However, once redirected, you can click the subtitle "(Redirected from As of 2005)" to return to the actual "As of 2005" article, and from there you can use the "What links here" link to find pages that may need updating.
 
In most cases, you'd create a standard link, such as: [[As_of_2005|[[As of 2005]]]] or [[As_of_2005|[[As of 2005|Currently]]]]
 
:'''See [[Wikipedia:As of|List of "As of" pages]]'''
 
===In special cases===
 
If you believe that the article is not likely to need review until a different year (perhaps after the next [[Olympic Games]] or the like), you can link only the words "as of":
 
:<nowiki>[[As of 2009|As of]] 2005</nowiki>
 
which would appear as:
 
:[[As of 2009|As of]] 2005
 
The "As of" would link to [[As of 2009]] while the "2005" does not link. The link to [[As of 2009]] means that near the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, someone can go to [[As of 2009]] and use the "What links here" link to see a list of articles that need reviewing.
 
==Discussion==
:''See [[wikipedia talk:Avoid statements that will date quickly|debate]] and [[Talk:As_of_2003|more debate]] on the subject.''
 
[[ja:Wikipedia:すぐに古くなる言葉を使わない]]